“I’m motivated by nothing but guilt. If you know anything about me, I am just a towering mass of Lutheran, Midwestern guilt.” – David Letterman
Who can’t relate to that statement? Garrison Keillor’s audiences have been treated to hilarious monologues on the subject. But Midwestern guilt runs deep.
It wasn’t any of the women who went after Dave either. A CBS, 20 year veteran male producer of “48 Hours” went after Letterman in a grand larceny plot that blew up in his face this week when Letterman, with the help of the D.A., trapped the creep.
The reporting on this story is pretty remarkable. A grown man, involved in a serious long-term relationship, but also enjoys sexual relationships with women on his staff, and that is seen as stunning, “a bombshell.”
There is a reason people don’t get married, but stay in long-term relationships. Newsflash: they can’t commit or don’t want to fully through marriage. If someone can’t commit that often means he or she knows there is an issue with a wandering eye or flirtations of the flesh, or maybe just an aversion to getting tied down that makes them unable to fully invest in one relationship fully. It’s a signal.
The “stunning revelations” aspect of the reporting reveals just how juvenile this country is when it comes to sex, especially in our celebrities, whether it be show business or politics.
It reminded me of Eliot Spitzer, especially after seeing him on Bill Maher’s show last week. What an idiot he was, especially since the “sheriff of Wall Street” had done such great work. But the passing of Ted Kennedy made me think about the bad situations some people get themselves into and what’s possible if they’re allowed to rehabilitate themselves and make amends. Just think, however, if Ted hadn’t been a Kennedy, he might have been charged with a serious crime, maybe even involuntary manslaughter. It’s apropos of nothing here, but something that he lived with his whole life, as his memoir reveals. So, Spitzer can yet come back, maybe even be someone important for the Democrats in the future. Who knows? It also makes you realize just how stupid John Edwards’ situation is, that a grown man could get himself caught up in a paternity issue in this day and age. Hookers and affairs seem like nothing in comparison.
Cheap thrills do not exist.
Letterman got out of a spooky situation, with the guy showing up at his home to threaten him, all of which happened to come to a boil in a week where he bested the “Tonight Show” ratings for the first time in over a decade.
Private lives of public people simply aren’t private anymore. But why it’s being reported as shocking that Letterman had affairs I have no idea. That men continue to make the century old mistake they’ve been making forever says something about human nature. Some things we just can’t seem to resist, sex and sometimes the lure of fleeting love being the great class equalizer capable of bringing big men to their knees.
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